European people trafficker details exactly how migrants are smuggled into UK from Turkey
More smugglers will fill the void left as existing criminal networks are broken up and arrested, a trafficker has warned.
In the second of a series of special reports, the Daily Express details how migrants are brought into Europe from Turkey.
But a career people smuggler, Ari, warned the huge police crackdown across the continent will not end the migration crisis, adding, “Tomorrow, if you arrest 100 people, 200 more will come”.
The 42-year-old Iraqi Kurdish criminal said “many” smugglers are also trafficking drugs to bolster their already vast profits.
But Ari claimed “there is some stuff that if you don’t do it, you won’t get caught”, insisting he has managed to hide in the shadows for 20 years, despite smuggling in both Greece and Turkey, by refusing to get involved in the even more dangerous drugs trade.
And Ari, which is not his real name, claimed European Governments and investigations are not clamping down on the “key” finance systems used by the migrants to pay the smugglers.
The “Hawala” system sees a third party pay a handler typically found in a cash exchange office in the migrants’ home country. This money is then held until the migrant arrives safely at their destination.
The smuggler can then collect his money from a cash exchange office in that city or country. No physical money is ever exchanged under the ‘Hawala’ system.
Ari admitted smugglers – and their facilitators who act as middlemen between them and the migrants – are not the only ones “who are doing something illegal”.
He said of the people working in the Hawala offices: “He is a key in this process. It is happening in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt. They are doing this in every country.
“I get the money here from one of the offices. They are doing everything illegal. They are the ones in charge of giving me the money.
He added: “Do you think the smugglers operating between the UK and France are sending people voluntarily? Many of the money transfers will be done in the UK, from the UK.”
Migrants hoping to reach the UK predominantly arrive in a poor neighbourhood in the Fatih district of Istanbul, around 20 minutes from many of the popular tourist destinations.
The system relies upon word-of-mouth instructions between smugglers, facilitators and their potential “customers” and between the migrants themselves.
Once they have arrived at Aksaray Metro Station, those hoping to reach Europe look for cafes where smugglers and facilitators can be easily found.
There, they hope to secure passage to Europe and they are then told to wait in cheap, often dirty, motels. The migrants will then be taken by bus to a beach in Western Turkey to board a boat for either Italy or Greece, or bundled into a lorry with Turkish number plates to the border with Bulgaria.
